The No. 18 Arkansas Razorbacks will say hello and goodbye to their second home, Little Rock's War Memorial Stadium, with today's 3 p.m. game against Toledo.
That was the same scenario for last October's 45-32 loss against Georgia, the only Little Rock game for the Razorbacks in 2014.
But this marks the first time since War Memorial Stadium opened in 1948 that Arkansas will not play a conference game within its confines. The Razorbacks have played a conference game in Little Rock for 78 consecutive seasons, according to UA football records. The last time Arkansas went a season without competing in a conference game in the state capital came in 1937, when the records show a game in Fort Smith against SMU.
The end-of-an-era moments are occurring two years after Arkansas stopped playing two games per season in Little Rock, and they have many fans in central Arkansas concerned about the long-term relationship between the state's flagship program and War Memorial Stadium.
As recently as 1999, Arkansas played three games on campus and three games in Little Rock, with two SEC games at each site.
Arkansas is contractually bound to play one game per season at War Memorial through the 2018 season, and one of those games must be against an SEC opponent.
After that? No one knows for certain.
Arkansas Athletic Director Jeff Long, asked Aug. 25 about the future of games at War Memorial, said: "From my perspective, you know we're solid through 2018 and really haven't had any discussions beyond that. So there's nothing new from our end as far as looking at that agreement beyond 2018."
Long did not respond to a request for comment for this story, instead referring through a spokesman to his Aug. 25 comments.
Kevin Crass, chairman of the War Memorial Stadium Commission, has long maintained that keeping a game in Little Rock is wise.
"I'm biased," Crass said. "I think it's in the best interest of the university to play down here, but we've got to convince the decision makers of that."
Arkansas is believed to be the last of 132 Football Bowl Subdivision programs to maintain an annual presence at a home site away from its campus. The Razorbacks are unique in that they claim three "home" stadiums -- 72,000-seat Reynolds Razorback Stadium, 54,120-seat War Memorial and 71,815-seat AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, the home of the Dallas Cowboys owned by former Razorback Jerry Jones.
Nostalgia and tradition are strongly on the side of keeping a game in Little Rock.
Former Arkansas player and coach Ken Hatfield pointed out the wisdom of Coach Bret Bielema going to as many speaking engagements across the state as he could before his first season in 2013.
"That's the thing about Arkansas, and I tried to help Bret understand that," Hatfield said at the time. "I told him, you don't realize when we played in Little Rock all those years, it was a unifying factor for the whole state. It's the one place in the state that everybody can get to and be united in that one stadium and look around and say, we represent the whole state of Arkansas against Texas or whoever we might be playing.
"That's a special feeling for the players, when you're representing your small-populated state against so many big states."
Finances, stadium size, scheduling issues, NCAA recruiting rules and other factors make Reynolds Razorback Stadium on the Fayetteville campus a preferable location for Razorbacks games.
Based on financial records provided to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette from the UA athletics department, last year's on-campus game against Alabama provided $4.4 million in net revenue. The Razorbacks' home game against Georgia in Little Rock, played the week after the Alabama game, made $2.6 million in net revenue, a difference of $1.8 million. The disparity included a difference in ticket sales of roughly $1.3 million, about $4.5 million for the Alabama game and about $3.2 million for the Georgia game.
Financial projections for last week's opener suggest a net revenue of $3.38 million, a figure that does not include the game guarantee paid to Texas-El Paso. The UA does not disclose game guarantees in public records requests, citing a competitive disadvantage factor. The projections for today's game against Toledo are for net revenues of $1.45 million, again excluding the game guarantee to be paid to the Rockets. The Toledo Blade found through a public records request that the guarantee is for $1 million.
The Razorbacks incur an additional expense for games in Little Rock of $400,000, included in the net revenue projection, through the 2016 game. That cost helped offset projected revenue for War Memorial Stadium from losing one Razorbacks game per season and to help satisfy debt on the stadium's most recent renovation project of the press box and suites.
The UA will not pay the $75,000 rental fee for the facility in 2017 and 2018 as part of the most recent amended agreement.
"I completely understand the tangible dollar difference toward every game," said David Bazzel, a former Razorback, radio personality with KABZ-FM, 103.7, The Buzz, as well as an entrepreneur who is founder of the Broyles Award, the Golden Boot (the trophy awarded to the winner of the Arkansas-LSU game) and the Little Rock Touchdown Club. "I understand there's a recruiting issue, the rules in recruiting, it's a hurdle.
"But again -- and I'm biased, because I do live down here and I was a player -- I just think there's still something in Little Rock that's very important to a lot of people."
Another dynamic evolving is the potential of adding more premium seating in a north end zone expansion at Reynolds Razorback Stadium that would seemingly place a bigger financial disparity between the two stadiums. The project is in the discussion stages at this point but appears to be the next phase of construction on the on-campus facility.
The decision on whether to extend the series in Little Rock could be months, maybe years, away. Long typically steers away from discussing the dynamics of the deal, aware of the sensitive nature of the topic.
Crass, who was chairman of the WMS Commission when the most recent amendment to the contract was negotiated in 2013, prefers to let the game come to him.
"What I learned through the last process was that circumstances will cause us to have discussions when the time is appropriate," Crass said.
The last "circumstance" was Arkansas' scheduling problems when Texas A&M joined the SEC in 2012. Because the Razorbacks had a long-term agreement with the Aggies to play games in Arlington, Texas, it took a home conference game away from Arkansas every other year.
A contract signed in 2008 had the Razorbacks bound to play two games, including an SEC game, in Little Rock every season through 2016. The amended deal added two years to the length of the contract but guaranteed one game in Little Rock from 2014 through 2018. Two of those five games were guaranteed to be against SEC competition.
If the Razorbacks had an SEC game in Little Rock this year, they would have only two SEC games in Fayetteville, because they are the designated home team for the Sept. 26 game against Texas A&M at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
Another issue is that the Razorbacks have had trouble selling out recent games at War Memorial Stadium. Today's game does not project as a sellout, although a postgame Brad Paisley concert on the grounds at War Memorial has added to the appeal.
"The concert has created a lot of buzz," Crass said. "I'd be remiss if I didn't say how grateful I am for Jeff and IMG for giving us this concert because it is a huge deal. ... I can't imagine a better game-day experience than this Saturday with the weather, tailgating, the game and then the concert."
The attendance issue is neither exclusive to Little Rock games nor to Arkansas. The Razorbacks fell short of selling out the opener against UTEP last week and had less-than-capacity crowds for their final three Fayetteville games last year against Alabama-Birmingham, LSU and Ole Miss.
"Every university in America has a big challenge on their hands, and they know it," Bazzel said. "Technology now is changing the game when it comes to the fight for recreational dollars, what people are willing to pay for, how much they're willing to pay and what they're willing to do.
"I think that's an important factor here too, where you continue to get big donors and you continue to fill up suites, but it's going to be much tougher to sell $55 end zone and top-level deck tickets. People can have great high-definition TVs to watch it on and watch it on their smart phones and can go out and just party and tailgate and watch it on a satellite.
"I think Jeff and other athletic directors know that. That is a challenge too."
Bielema discussed the merits of playing at War Memorial while noting the Razorbacks cannot provide "official" visits to prospects in Little Rock.
"I've developed some really good relationships with people over there in Little Rock -- Kevin Crass, Gary Smith -- guys whose heart and soul goes into that stadium," said Bielema, who noted that his players seem to enjoy the Little Rock experience.
"Even the guys that aren't from Little Rock, don't have a hand in the pie in that regard," Bielema said. "It's a totally different atmosphere to drive through the crowd and have them going nuts."
Bazzel detected the same thing as a player and fan.
" There is something different," he said. "It's palpable. It feels different.
"These folks down here don't get to see these guys on a regular basis, like at a restaurant or the gas station. It's almost like taking your show on the road to see another part of your fan base. ... You can tell, even through the walk-through, a different level of excitement."
Three games remain on the contract after today and the series' future isn't known, but it's sure to be a pre-eminent issue for Razorbacks football fans in the days to come.
Sports on 09/12/2015